​Changing Algorithms
For any strong local business, it is very important to invest in local reviews, maps and directories. If you only spend all your optimization efforts on your site, chances are that you are going to miss out on some fantastic opportunities. Google keeps changing its algorithms on a regular basis and in July 2014, the Pigeon update added more importance to local maps as well as directory websites such as Yelp. 

About Local Searches
It’s important to understand how local searches are relevant. For instance, when you look for “hardware store Greenville” you will have to actually scroll past 3 map listings as well as 3 organic ones before a local website listing shows up on the page. Typically, that means the first local business listing is in 7th position on the page. It’s not likely that many people will scroll down that far and reach your website result. This is why it’s crucial to optimize your online presence with Google Maps and Directory Sites. 

Things to Do
When people are in a particular area and are looking for a business, it’s very important that they be able to find your company quickly and easily or else they will simply take their business to your competitor. These are the things you should focus on:

• The first thing to do is to ensure that your business is listed and that all the displayed information is accurate
• This can be done for Google Maps through Google My Business
• The Google My Business application provides a simple way for any local business owner to claim an existing listing or create a new one
• It’s vital that you optimize your listing by adding information such as hours of operation, photos, your URL as well as contact information 
• It’s important that you create deals & reviews on Yelp as this adds to the credibility of your business
• Engage with your customers via Google Maps and Yelp regardless of whether the reviews are positive or negative ones

Get the help of a professional Web Design and Online Marketing company like Alco Web Design to manage your ongoing SEO strategy on Google Maps and Yelp. You can contact us or visit our website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

Recent researches proved that articles with longer content rank significantly better in Google’s search results. It’s true that many visitors will not have the patience or the time to read lengthy posts, but this happens when the content on the site or blogs is not interesting enough. Longer posts tend to have a much longer shelf life with the search engines as they also gain more social engagement and authority. 

Some Facts 
The minute you team up with a good web designer and content writer you will find a difference in the amount of traffic that comes to your website. Here is how it works: 

• Meet User Needs- Most businesses only focus on SEO. They post content and then only focus on adding loads of keywords and key phrases. In most instances, this makes the content unreadable for the people visiting the website. From Google’s viewpoint, having excessive keywords amounts to spamming. Write content for readers first and then think about the search engines, not the other way around.
• Better Search Rankings- Even as you do this, it’s also important to be found. Even if you have a small short blog which is very impactful, Google might not rank it. If you go on Google and search for any product or service and look at the top10 search results, you will notice that all of them have  pages with at least 2000 words of content.
• More Keyword Matches- In 2013 Google launched its Hummingbird algorithm. This focused on searching high-quality content websites that have meaning and substance. Long tail keywords are the best to use as those are the ones that match customer queries the best. Market research  has also proved that visitors who have used a long-tail keyword, convert much better compared to those who don’t.
• More Social Engagement & Links- People are much more likely to share content that is longer as they feel it is more valuable. Google also factors-in the total number of backlinks and social shares into a website’s ranking so you want your articles to be shared.

At the end of the day, both quality and length of the content matter. For more information about how we can build great content for you, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.  

The Relevance of Analysis
The main reason is because the sites that are successful help their visitors meet the main reason for their visit without any kind of fuss. A large percentage of sites either underperform or fail because they do not focus on the business objectives of their sites and do not measure the performance of their online platform against their target audience. This is where website analysis comes into the picture. A good web design and development company will also always provide website analysis services. 

In-Sync with Your Audience
The software shows you how successful you have been in meeting the objective of your site. It will also reveal exactly which of the marketing channels are functioning & which ones aren’t; the pages or sections of your site that are popular and which ones your visitors are avoiding. When you have all this information, the company that is helping you with online marketing will then draw out a detailed marketing strategy and alter certain elements of your website so that it actually works for your business. 

Local Marketing Strategy
If certain marketing channels do not seem to be working for you, it’s best to abandon them and focus on the ones that are giving you more visitors and business. In addition to these functions, website analysis tools are also able to capture the geographical location of your customers and if you are using Local SEO and targeting local customers, you will also get a view about how well the strategy is working.

As an online marketer, you have to learn to be flexible and adaptable and it’s also very important to have a very good online marketing partner to help you with Web Analytics. For more information, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

If you want the search engines to continue acknowledging your presence and want to be sure that customers will keep finding something interesting on it every time they visit, you will have to evaluate and update your website on a regular basis. 

The Latest Technology
There is a constant influx of new technologies and when you hire the services of a competent Web Design & Development company, you are assured that your website will get the change it needs. Web development professionals are always up-to-date with the latest technology launches in the field and these can be incorporated into your website to ensure that you are getting the traffic you should. 

Mobile Compatible Sites
If your business site is 3/more years old there is also a possibility that it is not mobile compatible. Today many people prefer to view sites via mobile devices and if your site does not show up in an optimal manner on these devices, you are losing out on business and your profitability will be affected.  Apart from this, there is a lot of new functionality that can be incorporated, such as RSS, social media integration, blogging,. video presentations, games, and others.

Regular Review 
All of these go a long way in allowing you to connect with your customer base and help in driving traffic to your site. The objective is to drive sales as this is the main reason for having site in the first place. It helps in improving your online visibility and in building a strong online community and reinforcing your branding. 

Web professionals can ensure that all your contact information is up to date and that customers have no trouble in connecting with you.  The internet is on round the clock; this also means prospective customers may look at your site at any point of time for the information they need. It makes good business sense to have a site that is updated and spruced-up. That is what maintaining a fresh look is all about. You can contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

There are 3 main reasons why you should keep your website updated: 

• Woo Search Engines- This becomes the key reason for you to keep your website updated. All search engines prefer websites that are updated frequently and this is why it is important for you to have fresh and unique content  on your site
• Impress Customers- If you have old newsletters etc on your site and, visitors to are going to feel that your company is not doing much. It’s important that your customers feel that you are a company that takes its business seriously and that it evolves
• Attract Inbound Links- When you keep adding something new to your website, people are more apt to notice it and will discuss about it via social media networks, blogs etc and attract more traffic  

How It Can be Achieved
There are a number of ways in which you can keep your website updated: 

• Incorporate a Blog- If you do not have a blog on your site- add one now. It’s a simple way  of adding new content and helps in increasing your credibility  in the industry 
• News Section- This is important too. Even if you feel that there aren’t too many newsworthy things happening in your company, post something related to your business. If you have attended an industry event- write about it; if you have served your 1500th customer- turn it into news piece. This will keep your site on the right side of search engines
• Add images/ videos to your site- Include a gallery page on your site as it’s easy to update this regularly. Also add short and relevant video clips such as product demonstrations and tutorials. Adding a description about each new addition will give your site the search engine  recognition it needs 

Other Things You Can Do
In addition to these things, include testimonials on your site as well as new menu pages. In short, make every effort to keep updating and making changes to your site on a monthly, fortnightly/ even a weekly basis and see the positive impact it has on visitor traffic. 

Alco Web Design can handle all Web Design and development functions. You can contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

 This is how Google Adwords works: 

• A user types the keywords or the search terms for the products/services he or she is looking for 
• Once the keywords that a business has chosen for their site, match the ones that users are searching for, your AdWords will be displayed above or adjacent to the search results
• Once an interested user clicks on your ad, they will be directed to your website for more information or to purchase the product/service 

Google AdWords have proved to be one of the most-effective forms of paid online marketing. Though the working seems pretty simple, it takes the expertise of a professional to ensure that the campaign works the way it should.  Take a look at the benefits of PPC: 

• Measurability- With Google AdWords, it is possible to measure every aspect of your marketing campaign. You will have access to information like the number of clicks that were actioned & the number of impressions. You will also know what the CTR or the Click-Through-Rate is. You will also be able to measure the  total number of conversions & the conversion rate, the cost per click & cost per acquisition
• Cost Effective- This is a very effective advertising medium as you pay only when a user actually clicks on a particular ad. You also have the option to “switch-on” and “switch-off” Google AdWords as required and this gives you the flexibility to choose the amount you want to spend
• High Relevance- Since all the high-relevance ads are displayed, it effectively levels the playing-field for all advertisers 
• Highly Targeted- Google uses very sophisticated targeting capabilities. This provides you various channels via which you are able to make changes to your campaigns, as required. You can use aspects like Language Targeting, Location Targeting, Mobile Targeting and Re-marketing. This adds punch to your advertising campaign

Expert Online Marketing Services
As with any online marketing campaign, the important aspect is to ensure that you have a well-established and credible company handling the work for you. Alco Web Design has the expertise to provide you with very impactful Google AdWords solutions which ensures tangible results. For your entire Web Design and Google AdWords needs contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.  

When any person who is looking for a product or service  on the internet, types in a keyword, have you noticed how some popular searches show up on the first page and more often than not, those are the sites you will visit. The higher a website on a search engine page, the greater the amount of traffic it gets.  So how can you reach those heights of search engine popularity? 

The All-Important Aspect
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the secret. If you have an online presence and want visitors to be attracted to it, you will have to ensure that it is optimized correctly. Though SEO is something you will be able to handle yourself, the entire process can be quite complicated. In addition, the SEO requirements keep changing based on what search engines like Google and Bing are looking for. This makes it all–important for your SEO professional to make strategic changes to the solutions they have provided. 

Benefits of SEO

• User Experience- A well optimized site improves the user experience as it makes the site more user-friendly and this provides short-term & long-term benefits 
• Attract Customers- The minute your site is optimized well, your ranking on search engines will increase. This will attract more customers and increase conversions too 
• Expand your Reach- The minute you have an effective SEO strategy, it will help you get customers from other areas. If you want to target a local audience, you  can use Local SEO techniques to ensure  that the traffic is coming from the surrounding areas
• Brand Awareness- When you get top position on SERP’s, the brand awareness about your company also increases. Typically, people will be more attracted to a brand that has a stronger online presence and this is something you can achieve with SEO 

These are just a few of the benefits of having a good SEO strategy in place. But it is even more important to have a credible and well-established SEO company working on this aspect. For more information about how Search Engine Optimization works, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

Getting Better Ranking
For example, if you have a site that sells cell phone accessories, then inbound links from articles like “The latest cell phone accessories for youngsters” should have some key phrases like “sleek leather covers” or “Trendy cell phone covers for girls” etc. Here are some simple link-building SEO pointers. This will help in getting your website a better ranking: 

• Relevance- The website that holds your link has to be “relevant” with reference to its topic or theme, to the service or product that your site deals with 
• Quality- The actual quality of the site which is linking back to yours is crucial. It is best to focus on linking quality sites and do not get tempted to  link-up too many sites that are low relevance
• Credibility- The links that come to site should be of a high quality. This simply means that the links should not be coming in from irrelevant sites like gambling/ adult sites 
• Page Rank- The site that links back to yours should ideally have a page rank above 2 or 3. A higher ranking will add credibility to your site 
• Website Age- The age of the sites that link to your business site should be a minimum of 2-3 years
• Do Follow Links- This means your webmaster will ensure that the links on the website will be able to pass on “link juice” to other sites
• Anchor Text- Ensure that your content has the right anchor text. For e.g.- in a cell phone accessories website, instead of having a link that says “ click here”, it’s MUCH better to have some text like “popular cell phone accessories”

In addition to all these factors, make sure that the link is also positioned high up on any page and that the content surrounding it is relevant to your business. Links from social media should come in from sites like Twitter and Facebook. For the perfect website optimization and linking solutions contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com. 

The Local SEO Strategy
Many small business owners believe that having a website is enough- but very frankly, it’s not to get your website on top of the Google search results. If you are a niche business that caters to local customers in your town, city or region, the SEO strategies you follow will be very different from the ones that are followed by global corporations who also deal with international customers. This is what will help:

• Local Maps- A large number of people now use Google, Apple map and Bing technology to look for local businesses. Having good pictures, reviews and content from customers is one way of ensuring that you are noticed. All of this should also have all the relevant keywords placed in it
• Indexing- It is important that your site be indexed on local search engines. This step is one that comes before ranking 
• Ranking- Your sites will have to be ranked locally. Keywords that are specific to your community is what comes next. These should be targeted based on geography
• Common Local Searches- Your business should be listed in applications like Facebook, Foursquare and CitySearch. When any prospective customer looks for your product/service via their mobile phone, your business will show up there
• Keyword Optimization- It is important to maintain a balance between the service/product you are selling, the target location and the keywords that are used on your site
• Local Directory Listing- Your website should feature on all the local website directories which are specific to your product/service
• Social Media- These sites are a great way of getting more local visibility and they offer Local SEO
• Google Analytics- This is a vital point and installing Analytics on your business website helps you make smart marketing decisions and will help you strategize from a local marketing perspective

We can help in all kinds of smart, intuitive and innovative web design and Local SEO strategies and you will notice the boost it gives all your online marketing initiatives.  Contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com to understand how we can help you with Website Design and online marketing. 

The Crucial Move
The truth is that an SEO strategy, no matter how strong, will work only in conjunction with a few other things- Google AdWords being a key player in attracting the RIGHT kind of traffic to your site. AdWords or Pay Per Click (PPC) are crucial in getting a good flow of qualified customers to your site. AdWords work in a very simple way. When a user types any word or phrase in the Google search filed, it is an indication that they are looking for something specific.

How You Benefit
If you create a PPC campaign that targets those specific keywords and those ads show up at the opportune moment, you have a qualified customer and a potential sale. AdWords have many benefits such as:

Settings Change- You have the functionality to switch these AdWords on and off, as you require them. This is a great function especially if you want to launch a special time-sensitive offer.

Budget Flexibility- The system allows you to alter your budget and the changes take place the very same day. You can cut down spending on a slow day and up it when you want to.

Measurability- When you set a certain marketing strategy for your website, you also have the functionality to see the exact number of people who have actually clicked on your ad and can also follow their actions on your site.

Transparency- This medium provides you with a lot of transparency and you can effectively track conversion and calculate the cost per conversion. This helps you measure your ROI in quite an accurate manner, as well as your actual profit.

Despite all this functionality, you have to keep in mind that no huge changes are going to take place overnight. It’s also important to ask your online marketing professional about adding Google Analytics to AdWords. This will give your effort the boost it needs and slowly but surely you will start seeing tangible results.

You struggle with your website ROI? Alco Web Design specializes in SEO services for small business owners of the Appleton Fox Valley area. We are there to help, contact us or call us at (920) 850-4642. We will get back to you promptly.

The Benefits

• Targeted Exposure- In order to make significant online sales, every business has to get a sufficient amount of exposure. Just having an online presence is not sufficient and guest blogging is one of the methods of getting that attention.
• Qualified Traffic- The quality of traffic to your site increases when you have good guest-posts on it. You are able to leverage the existing loyal follower-base from other blogs and then direct them to your own blogs.
• Credibility- It’s very easy for any business on the internet to claim that they are experts as there really is no strong method of validating that claim. But the minute you have some authoritative guest posts on your site, it automatically increases your credibility as these blogs act like an endorsement.
• Networking Channel- Guest blogging is a great way of connecting with influential people in your field like industry experts, entrepreneurs and decision makers.
• Link-Building- Though this is not the primary function of guest blogging, it is the best way of bringing all those valuable links to your site and making visitors sit up and notice you. It’s a great way to impress Google as well.
• Social Networking- Most blogs share their content with their respective social media followers. Automatically, all the people who are following those blogs on the various social networks also get notifications about your posts.

We Handle it All
All of this simply means that guest blogging opens up a treasure house of new business opportunities for you. Alco Web Design knows and recognizes that it is very difficult for you to keep track of activities such as these, and we help with handling all guest blogging activities on your website. For more information, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

Quality Falls Victim to Quantity
Typically, any website that had a lot of incoming links would have a higher ranking in comparison to a rival website that had fewer rankings and many businesses would approach SEO companies with these link building requests.  The latter  would go all out and have a flood of backlinks leading to their client’s sites and everything seemed to work well at that point of time. But most SEO companies also just focused on building links without checking on their relevance or quality.

There was a time when Google did not care too much if a Dentist’s site had a self-storage or home improvement company link leading back to it. But then Google changed. In 2011, it introduced its Panda update and later in 2012, the Penguin update was released. With these updates, the focus shifted from quantity to the quality of links. Panda hounded the sites that had bad links and Penguin followed in hot pursuit. Very soon, many websites saw that their rankings were dipping and so were the traffic and their revenues.

The Bad Link Haunting
The fact of the matter is that even some bad content or links that have been built a number of years ago, can come back to haunt you now. If that has happened to your site, one way of recreating your credibility is to identify those bad links and eliminate them. If Google hasn’t penalized you yet, consider yourself lucky but don’t sit pretty.

Do not wait for bad links harm your website and do nor risk getting banned. Contact Alco Web Design and we will go through all the backlinks to your site with a fine-toothed comb, clean them out and ensure that these bad links don’t mar the credibility of your business. We can also help in building relevant and valid backlinks to your site. For more information, you can contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

But things have now changed and a larger number of people are veering towards online searches when they want to look for a specific product or service. This is where local business listings come into the picture and we help a number of clients with this medium. It has a number of benefits for small businesses:

• Easy Search- When you categorize your business in the appropriate niche, it will show up in the search results when someone searches for a product/service. This is a great way of ensuring that prospective customers in the locality are able to access your information easily.
• Offers & Promotions- You are also able to quickly advertise any new offers or promotions via local business listings. They can be changed/updated very conveniently and you can also customize them very easily.
• Mobile Phone Access- Increasingly, the trend is that people look for information via their mobile phones, when they are on the move. The minute you advertise in local business listings, it opens up that particular set of customers to you as well.
• Versatility- You are also able to display videos and photos and make your ads more effective, in the simplest of ways. Local business listings also give you more ad space compared to Printed Pages.
• Cost Efficient- Displaying your ad on local business listings is very cost-efficient in comparison to print advertisements. The latter can cost thousands of dollars while the former will cost only a fraction of that amount. This, in combination with the flexibility that the medium provides you, in terms of being able to alter the information- is definitely a high ROI.

Overcome the Challenges
Operating a small business profitably in the current market scenario where the competition is very high is quite a difficult task. The key to increasing sales and improving your bottom line lies in adopting smart online marketing strategy and advertising your business in local online directories is one of the best methods of achieving this. For more information about local business listings, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

But it also has many other benefits and when we handle online marketing or web design for any of our clients, we ensure that the best techniques are used.  Take a look at the benefits of link building:

• Boost Search Engine Rankings- Surveys have proved that almost 7% of consumer sales take place online & an amazing 89% of the online purchases are affected by online research. The Inbound links to your site impacts the position of your website on the search engine results pages.
• Direct visitors To Website- Having quality links attracts real people to your website and placing those links on quality sites is also important. This can go a long way in improving the traffic to your site and this also increases the chances of conversion.
• Adding Credibility- Regardless of which market you are in, there are a number of websites that will be similar to yours in terms of the services/products that are on offer. But when you ensure that your links are placed on various sites, it automatically positions you as a leader in that space. It adds to your credibility and gives you an upper hand against your rivals. 
• Attracting More Quality Links- At the outset, a new site finds it difficult to get links and it is important to get some early successes & build momentum. Once you do this consistently, you will notice that getting quality links is not that difficult any longer.  Once other sites recognize you as a market leader, they will want to link to you.

High Value Marketing Tool
What is even more important is that link building is a very effective marketing tool. Unlike advertisements, high quality links will bring in traffic to your site very consistently, and their influence will be evident for numerous years. Google as well as other search engines always take the age of the link into consideration.

Keep in mind that anyone who links to you has done so because they see value in you and your business and this becomes a very strong selling point for your business. Let Alco Web Design help you with link building for your site. For more information, contact us or visit our website, www.alcowebdesign.com.

A press release, also called a news release, is a short article that is written in a very factual way. The idea also is to avoid sales or advertising language. This may include announcements about new product/ services releases, expansions, new offices, team members or charitable contributions. As a matter of fact, there are an endless number of topics for press releases.

Free Publicity
Press releases are very inexpensive to prepare & distribute in comparison to the price of print/ online advertising and the former also provide you with comprehensive coverage. Whenever members of the news media write any news story based on your company’s press release, it automatically generates free publicity for your company. If the reporters find that release newsworthy, your story can also show up in numerous new publications. It can also get carried on the major networks and talk shows.

The Benefits
The press release medium is a very flexible one. If you are looking to publicize only in the local markets, we at Alco Web Design can create copy that is directed at local publications. On the other hand, if you are looking for global publicity, that is possible too.  There is also a constant demand for new angles and information for news stories. Press releases can help your website and business as they are:

• Low cost
• Provide higher visibility for your company
• Attract new customers
• Attract new investors
• You get free publicity

Adding Credibility
Whenever the media/ bloggers write about your company’s news release, the completely free publicity that is generated provides more credibility & value to your company which is one of the major benefits. From the stand-point of a consumer, editors who have reported on your company’s news release are considered to be disinterested parties. This means that they cover your announcement based on public demand for useful and relevant information.

This kind of 3rd-party credibility provides a boost to news stories that any kind of paid advertising will not be able to provide. In short, press releases are a form of very effective indirect marketing. For additional details about how press releases can help your website, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

Google Webmaster is different in that an advanced search expert can get a completely new perspective on strategizing and evaluating search efforts. Here is what it can do for you:

For the Sake of SEO
Google Webmaster Tools are crucial for any kind of strong SEO effort. They help you in looking at your website in the manner that Google sees it and you get a lot of insights into the pages that have been indexed on your website, the links that are leading to it and the popular keywords that you need to use and a lot more. Here are 5 main indicators that you should be looking at in it:

• Query- This gives you all the details about which keywords your website is currently being ranked for. It helps you understand whether the keywords that you are using are working or not. You can use this feature to add a boost to all the relevant keywords by linking or additional content optimization.
• Impressions: If you are curious about knowing about the number of people who are viewing your website for a particular keyword search, this feature will tell you that. It helps you validate the value of the keywords you are using.
• Clicks: Of all the people who are looking at your website, you also need to know exactly how many are clicking. This information tells you exactly how many viewers are taking action & clicking on the search result.
• CTR: The click-through rate is the actual percentage of people who are clicking on your site in the search results. If the click-through rates on your site are low, look at how you can alter the Meta description for that particular page.
• Average Position: This metric tells you exactly where your website ranks for every keyword. Since a large percentage of the traffic goes to the sites in the top-2 positions for a particular term, it is helpful to see how you are performing and how it is impacting traffic to your site.

Google Webmaster Tools helps you understand what is getting indexed, what is being linked, and what is getting traffic. It’s an excellent tool for optimizing Search Engine Marketing efforts. For additional details about Google Webmaster Tools, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

Having fantastic graphics and a very attractive site is all important but it takes much more than that to keep visitors glued to your site. The minute they find that your site has very relevant and engaging content; they will come back for more. Some types of web content are:

Article Writing
Article writing is a very impactful tool in online marketing. It can add to the popularity of your site. The articles should be relevant, crisp and well-written. Effective and optimized content helps in:

• Adding an interesting perspective to your website
• Offering fast  results
• Generating backlinks & traffic
• Promoting the products & services that your company offers
• Adding weightage to your website
• Giving your business’ online marketing efforts a definite edge

Blog Content Writing
The only way to draw more traffic is to have relevant SEO content. Blogging has also gained a lot in popularity and is a part of web content. Most sites have blog sections with interesting information. It benefits your business in numerous ways as it:

• Gives your site the required exposure
• Creates awareness about your services and business
• Generates website traffic
• Helps in  conversions

Linkbait
Linkbait is web content writing that is specifically designed to attract numerous links to your website. Some of these write-ups may be designed for well-known bloggers, certain social news/ bookmarking sites. You should use content to tell your visitors more about your work and business. It encourages them to stick around and look at your site in more detail.

It also helps in effectively establishing your company as an authority in the field. Apart from attracting customers, web content helps in earning you valuable links from many potential customers. Use your website smartly and understand that it is an important tool for boosting your visibility and improving the profitability of your business. For additional details about website content, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

One of the most notable features of this service is its ability to actually flag some pages as “goals”. This function is very useful in Internet marketing. Irrespective of what the purpose of your website is, Google Analytics will help in making it better.

The Benefits
One of the simplest methods of finding out if a site is doing well, is to track the number of visitors. Though this information is valuable, it does not really tell us anything about what your visitors are navigating when they visit your site. But Google Analytics helps in numerous ways and has some distinct advantages:

• Flexible Reporting- It provides account holders with data in the form of customizable reports. These reports can be set up in such a way that they will collect as well as deliver data based on various individual analytics aspects such as visitors or conversions. It monitors reports and also alerts the user whenever there are any significant changes in activity.
• User Friendly- Not every website manager is super tech-savvy. Google Analytics is easy to use and designed with a very simple interface. There are also numerous online educational resources that users can learn from. For those who want added functionality, the system offers pivot tables and other complex tools that can be used effectively for more in-depth analysis.
• ROI Tracking- Google Analytics helps you interact in a better way with your customers and you can also track the results of any existing campaigns you might have launched. The data that is collected from the system tells the website owners what their visitors are looking for and what they are navigating on the site. Businesses can use this information to make design changes and make navigation simpler.
• Price- This is one major advantage of Google Analytics- it’s free for subscribers who have below 5M page views every month. There is no restriction on the number of pageviews for users who have Google Adwords accounts.

Google Analytics is online analyzing made easy. It’s a great way to keep track of how your business is doing and in developing new website marketing, SEO and search engine marketing strategies. For additional details about Google Analytics, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

There are numerous strategies that can be used by companies who want to use website marketing to extend their reach and increase sales.

Common Methods
The most common methods of online marketing are Search Engine Marketing, paid advertising, E-publishing and networking. Let’s take a look at the different types of marketing and how they work.  Search engines work best when a website is indexed well.  The page rank that your website receives will decide where it is placed on search results. A higher page rank means more website traffic. Getting that high page rank is all important when it comes to visibility on the internet and your chances of being found by your targeted customers. I have outlined these methods for you:

• E-Publishing- It’s not so easy to get that high listing and it can also be a very expensive and time consuming affair. This is where SEO comes into the picture. E-publishing is somewhat like traditional print media but in this case, you are placing your ad on the internet and your company website is in effect that ad. You should also send out periodic newsletters to customers and the content on your site should be written and optimized well.
• Networking- This is about building online contacts & business relationships. You can sign up for new groups, email or sales discussions. Regular and consistent participation helps in building a reputation which is a big part of marketing.
• ​Paid advertising- In this kind of advertising, you purchase a banner ad on any high-traffic website of your choice. When a visitor to the site clicks on your ad, he/she gets directed to your website which can turn into a potential sale.

Consistency counts
There are numerous other mediums of internet marketing but these are the most basic. Understanding and mastering these is the best way to get started and it will give your business that head start it needs. Your online presence and your marketing efforts cannot be built in a day. Online marketing success is about using all the relevant methods and making a continuous and concerted effort.

For additional details about Internet marketing, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

The encrypted Google searches do not transfer the keyword data to websites. Thus, they now eliminate the ability for site owners to track users via their keyword searches. And so, has Google scrapped the Keyword Tool? Yes it has. But it’s not left users in the lurch. The company has replaced it with the Keyword Planner. This tool combines functionalities of the erstwhile Keyword Tool and that of the Traffic Estimator.

Now, users are required to create a Google Adwords account. This is just a one-time inconvenience for any Google advertiser and website marketing will now have to be tackled differently. The missing keyword data “not provided” will definitely impact online marketers.  It is a very effective indicator of what topics actually work and new topics can be uncovered.

There are certain impacts on Internet marketing. There will be no more keyword-specific website traffic. Keyword-specific trends cannot be tracked over time-by geography or seasonality. Marketers will no longer be able to iteratively optimize efforts based on the user content. It will not be possible to determine brand Vs. non-brand keywords mix, which is a reflection of impact of the other media-driving searches (earned, ads, owned, shared).Unless you are advertising with the Google’s AdWord program, the insight is now gone.

However, marketers do have some alternatives. They will be able to correlate the keyword content mapping & ranking of any page to the traffic of that page.  From the keyword glossary, it will be possible to map the keywords that are most relevant for the corresponding and optimized web pages. They can also check relative ranking of the keywords & pages and the organic referred-search traffic to those specific pages. They can line-up all the page metrics and get some idea about the search performance

However, all of this is based on the singular assumption that pages that are optimized for specific phrases, (with higher-ranking and higher traffic) are a result of attraction of those designated phrases. For additional details about Search Engine Marketing and SEO, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com.

But things have changed and now most successful websites will make an attempt to reach out to their visitors and generate business by using a number of Internet marketing techniques.

This is where the ubiquitous Blog comes on stage. Blog is essentially an acronym for Web-log and is like an online journal. Any posts that are added to the blog will be displayed in reverse-chronological order and a continuous “autobiography” of a website is created. A blog is a very important engine for attracting more Web traffic. Add a blog to your site, update it on a regular basis and it will instantaneously add an interest quotient to your website. First time visitors will find a reason to revisit it and slowly but surely the trickle of visitors to your site will turn into a flood.

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when you blog. I always suggest that a mechanism for comments be included. This is the best way to up your visitor’s level of loyalty and the “conversation” becomes an attraction point for visitors. The comments can also be used as feedback and they can give you some important pointers about how you can improve your site or the services and goods that you are selling. If you are able to use that effectively and create a stronger presentation, it will appeal to a larger audience and drive website traffic. Those who publish blogs will also frequently approach many other bloggers and will request for links.

Another effective tactic is to add a conduit toolbar. This is a teaser link or a widget that you can add to the toolbar- a click will lead them to your website. What is probably most important for website marketing is that you keep your blog fresh and updated. A moss-laden blog will get buried in the www while one that is updated regularly will continue to hog the spotlight. In my opinion, adding frequent, interesting and relevant blog content that is crisp and catchy is the way to keep drawing traffic to your website.

For additional details about website designing and SEO, feel free to contact me or visit my website at www.alcowebdesign.com or contact us.

This makes sense because people are more likely to be interested by fresh information than by older information.  The same goes for your website where frequent updates translate into a higher position (higher visibility) on the search engines search results.

The other reason to periodically update your website is that if you don’t get ahead of your competitors you will get behind.  Things change all the time on the internet and if you don’t improve your website your competitors will and eventually you will get so far behind that nobody will find your website.

How often should you update your website?  It depends about how competitive is your market and about how aggressive your competitors are.  In very competitive environments you might want to update your website every week or at least monthly.  A good idea is to use Google Analytics to monitor your traffic and take action if and when appropriate.  As a general rule I usually recommend small business owners to update their websites about twice a year.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or to visit my website (www.alcowebdesign.com) for more detail about small business website design and SEO.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

Research and identify keywords
A keyword is a word or short phrase that a person enters into a search engine when looking for something specific.  Selecting the right keywords will bring the right visitors to your website and it is the single most important step of your SEO effort.

In addition to the products and services you offer, think about the needs of your potential customers. If you are a chiropractor, “sport injuries” might be a good keyword.  If you are plumber, “how to fix a leaky faucet” might be a good keyword.

No matter how good your SEO expert is, he\she knows very little about your business. Your input is VERY critical to the success of your Search Engines Optimization.  Be EXTREMELY concerned about the results if you are not deeply involved with this process.

Establish keywords strategy
The purpose of this strategy is to determine what keyword(s) to use on what page of your website. Keep focus and avoid diluting your keywords by using a maximum of three keywords per page.  Existing web pages might need to be re-arranged and additional web pages might need to be created in order to efficiently use each of your keywords.

Work and rework the text of your text
Search engines will reward you for creating original and content rich web pages.  Keep your visitors in mind and rework the text of your pages to clearly and accurately describe your content ensuring that your keywords are used a few times and flow naturally through the text.  Increase your keywords concentration by eliminating non value added sections that does not use your keywords.  Search engines like fresh content, make periodic touchups.

Do not cheat
Search engines are pretty smart these days.  Focus on winning on the long run and expect your traffic to build up over time.  Webmasters who promise 1000’s new visitors overnight usually plainly lie or use questionable techniques that will get your website in trouble once they are exposed.  Refer to the Google Webmaster Guidelines for more details.
 
Please do not hesitate to contact me or to visit my website for more detail about small business Search Engines Optimization (SEO). 

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

Two years ago it was my 25th year college reunion and I opened a Facebook account to be able to go to my reunion’s Facebook group page.  With Facebook we were able to share pictures and comments but because of the lack of built-in organization tools, our group’s page shortly became like a shoe box over filled with pictures and post-it notes that nobody has the courage to look at.  We also tried to use Facebook as a communication tool to coordinate the reunion but standard emails with a distribution list quickly proved to be far more efficient to communicate within the group.  Overall my Facebook group’s page was not bad but not great either.

Now that I had an account, I looked for Facebook friends.  It was pretty cool to hear about a few high school buddies that I had lost track of but I did not care much about what movie they recently watched or at what restaurant they like.  I did not feel like sharing that kind of information either, so I did not post much stuff and did not come back to my wall too often.  But since then Facebook drove me nuts by sending me emails every time my Facebook friends were doing something.  After a while I was able to close the gate but sneaky Facebook periodically changes the rules and finds new way to send me more unsolicited emails. I come to my wall about once a month and every time I go there I feel that I have lost an hour of my life.  Facebook wastes my time, invades my privacy, and crawls through my personal information like a virus. I have real friends that I talk to and do things with; I don’t need any Facebook friends.

I run a small website design business (www.alcowebdesign.com) and I thought that Facebook might be a great marketing tool that would bring me new business so I created a page for my business.  All my Facebook friends quickly liked it but nobody ever goes there; Millions of people “like” the Coca Cola Facebook page but don’t go there and don’t get thirsty for a Coke every time they go on Facebook.  I thought that my business Facebook page would at least help my Google ranking by adding an incoming link to my website but Google and Facebook are not exactly friends and Google does not index Facebook pages.  Maybe I simply don’t get it but to attract new business, maintaining a Facebook business page is not an efficient use of my time.

All that being said, I conclude that Facebook is not worth my time and I will shortly cancel my personal and business accounts.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642

If you browse the web you will find many studies showing the market share of each of those search engines. The numbers vary a bit from study to study but the main take away is that Google is used for about two thirds of the US internet searches; this does not leave much for Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL. Since my customers deal with the realities of limited time and budget, I usually recommend them to optimize their website primarily for Google.

Many SEO companies offer Search Engines Optimization services. The waters of SEO are infested with sharks that use shortcuts designed to trick Google. This sometimes results in short term gains but will eventually get you in trouble when Google figures out you are cheating. Good, sustainable SEO is hard work and there is no free lunch. Get informed and be careful who you work with. Visit our blog to learn more about SEO and Search Engines Optimization.

SEO is a complex field and there is no one size fit all solution. We offer personalized services and you ALWAYS work directly with the owner. We offer the best value in small business SEO services in the Appleton Fox Valley. Please call 920-850-4642 or use the contact form to get started.

Alain Houle, President
Alco Web Design LLC - http://www.alcowebdesign.com
N1337 Westgreen drive, Greenville Wisconsin 54942
920-850-4642
staff@alcowebdesign.com